It is a good question. Sometimes we ask the right questions. Sometimes we ask the wrong questions. Sometimes we do not even know how to “phrase the question” or to put them into words…
What must I “do?”
What should I be “doing?”
Well, it should be “kind of obvious,” by now…
Look at your life! Are you a person of honor? Are you respected? Are you a role model? Are you a good person? Are you honest to a fault? Can you be trusted? What kind of a friend are you?
If you are a follower of the Christ, would anyone else ever know it? So what are your deficits, anyways?
So, a young rich man comes before Jesus.
There are “red flags” all over the place.
He comes a running, in an age, in a time, when men did not run in their robes, and you never lifted up your robe up and never showed your bare legs to anyone.
It was completely out of character for a man to come running. It was beneath his dignity. And yet, he comes running up to Jesus.
What was he running from? Was it perhaps himself? Or, his past? Red flag number one.
He comes and he bows down before Jesus which is well and good. It is a sign of honor a sign of respect. He is obviously kind and courteous.
But there was something about him -about his attire…something about his dress. There was something about the language he used. There was something about his mannerisms.
Aha…
He was a man of “means,” a man of “wealth.” It appeared that he was a major landowner, a member of the local aristocracy. And he is bowing before Jesus.
Jesus is really of a lower estate. Jesus should be bowing before him.
Why this reversal?
Why this dance or this game about “who is superior” and “who is inferior?”
And yet, the game goes on…
Jesus, we know, was born among the lowest of the low – in his society.
That whole parental question followed him all the days of his ministry. Was his mother married, and just who was his father. And why such humble, poor beginnings? No place to stay? No relatives to take them in? Why?
Interesting…
That would be red flag number two.
And then he calls, Jesus “good” when everyone knows that no one is good except God himself.
We are all flawed, each and every one of us. When it comes to flaws there are no exceptions.
Red flag number 3.
Then he asks what must he do to “inherit” eternal life.
Now, I am not playing with or splitting words here. But this rich young man wants to “inherit” God’s kingdom!
He wants to “inherit it,” like some kind of a “right.” He wants to be “given it.” Like something “owed to him.”
The Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, Eternal life is not a hand-out, or is it? Is it something to be earned? Like, by merit? Can we buy our way in? Purchase our way in? Cajole our way, in?
Um, that would be another red flag and the meeting has just got started.
And yet, it seems that he wants this so bad that he can almost taste it. He is hungering…he is thirsting…like a deer panting…for water…
And Jesus loved him. This is the only time in the Synoptic Gospels of (Mark, Matthew and Luke) that it is said, that Jesus loved someone.
Jesus has sent others away. This one, he will not send away. This one has potential. This one has possibilities. This one might actually “mean what he says, and says what he means.”
This one should be invited to follow.
But, there was one little tiny thing holding him back…and that was his wealth. He was indeed a man of possessions, property, real estate.
Jesus tells him four things to do: getup, sell, give to the poor and come and follow me. Note he does not say, sell everything, give everything…
Just show me – what you have in you. Remember the poor, the marginalized, those with less than you have, then come and follow me.
And, I tell you, one of the saddest scenes in all the gospel accounts, is right here, as this rich young man walks away and turns his back on Jesus. For he was rich.
Amen.